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Budget wrangling over neighborhood improvement; City Hall evacuated over "thing"

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City Hall - Photo: Jesse Fox

City Council is likely just days away from voting on the city's $358 million operating budget, but some sticking points remain. A
deferred repayment of funds meant to improve eight neighborhoods around
the city has raised concerns among some council members.

In
2011, the city borrowed $5 million from tax incremental finance
districts in Avondale, Bond Hill, East Walnut Hills, Evanston,
Madisonville, Oakley, Queensgate, and Walnut Hills. The money went to
pay off debts to Cincinnati Public Schools. $2 million of the loan was scheduled to be repaid by next year, but the budget pushes that repayment off until 2017. The
money was culled from increases in tax revenues following capital
improvement projects in the neighborhoods. Officials in each say they
need the funds to carry out necessary improvement projects. So far, only
$1 million has been repaid. Council members Kevin Flynn and
Yvette Simpson have raised concerns about the delay in repayment, with
Simpson calling it "an assault on neighborhoods."

The $5 million borrowed from the neighborhood TIF districts will be the center of a lawsuit brought against the city by a private developer in Oakley.

Other
possible hotspots in the budget include another $900,000 cut in spending
that was meant to improve business districts in neighborhoods around
the city and a looming fight over what to do with money for the city's
bike program. Mayor John Cranley has indicated he wants to use the money for
offroad trails, though the city's plan as originally written focuses on
bike lanes on city streets.

Eighth Street downtown was closed this morning and City Hall evacuated after
a... thing... was found nearby. The thing, which looked like the kind
of bomb a zany Scooby Doo villian would plant, was later determined by
fire crews to be "just a piece of junk" that probably fell off a truck.

Debate continues over what to do with the old School for Creative and Performing Arts building on Sycamore. Some would like to see a plan to turn the building into luxury apartments come to fruition, though others in the neighborhood have reservations, especially about a proposed parking garage that would eliminate green space around the building. Plans will be discussed further at a community meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at Rothenberg Academy.

A measure
to make sure counties and municipalities across the state make public
information available online is gaining momentum. Four bills in the Ohio
House to create the DataOhio Initiative have passed through committees
and are one step closer to becoming law. The bills would create grants
for local governing bodies to digitize their budgets and spending
information so they're more accessible to citizens.